What: 2023 Spring Plant Swap
When: Saturday, May 20, 2023
Time: Noon until . . .
Where: Lucketts, VA
Who: NGA Members and their guests (scroll down thread for list of attendees)

As with past swaps, we will be using the Seed Swap tool here on the NGA site. To use the swap tool, you must first Register

Useful Links:
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What you've bought/dibbed
What you've sold
Swap Control Panel
Swap Events Log (Adds, Deletes and Dibs)
Complete Swap List

Registration Began: Mar 19, 2023
Trading Begins: Apr 30, 2023
Trading Ends: May 19, 2023

This single thread will be used for everything pertaining to the swap, including chat. I will edit details in this first post as they occur.

If you've never been to an in-person swap, don't be shy! After all, where else can you go and hang out with a bunch of people talking about plants with enthusiasm? Of course, we can't forget about the food!

Attending:
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- Terri (Our hostess) (aspenhill)
- Bonnie (Terri's Sister-In-Law)
- Chantell (Chantell)
- David & Pat (greenthumb99 & ecnalg)
- Fliz15
- Francine (TanteFrancine)
- Jill (Critterologist)
- KathySteve (KathSteve)
- Lisa & Eric (5601Lisa)
- Ralph & Mary (RalphGamba)
- Rick (RickM)
- Robin & Joyce (RobinBunch5)
- Sally (donnerville)
- Sally (sallyg)
- Sheela & Bob (crystalsalt)
- Sue & David (sulurph)

Pot Luck Lunch... Who's Bringing What:
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- Terri (aspenhill) - grilled hamburgers/cheeseburgers and chicken sausages
- Bonnie (Terri's Sister-In-Law) - broccoli salad
- Chantell (Chantell) - Thai PB spicy pasta
- David & Pat (greenthumb99 & ecnalg) - cheese and crackers, dessert
- Jill (critterologist) - deviled eggs
- Lisa & Eric (5601Lisa) - sangria
- Ralph (RalphGamba) - hot dogs and buns
- Rick (RickM) - baked beans, boozy blackberries
- Robin (RobinBunch5) - brownies and fruit salad with vanilla yogurt
- Sally (donnerville) - dumplings
- Sally (sallyg) - Southern Living Crispy Coleslaw
Sue (Sulurp) - Fruit Salad

Gift Table:
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As in past swaps, we will be having a gift/door prize table. Please consider bringing something, new or gently used, for the table.

Misc Stuff... Who's Bringing What:
- Jill (critterologist) group buy Greenhouse Megastore trays and domes ($s owed from Rick $35.25, Chantell $35.50, and Sheela $21.30)
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I'm up for hosting the spring plant swap at my home Aspen Hill in Lucketts, VA this year. I'm pretty flexible on dates. Any Saturday in May is fine with me - 6th, 13th, 20th? Which date(s) work best or not at all for you guys?

FYI. While searching for this plant swap, I found another plant swap in Sykesville, MD on May 13. Might want to avoid that date.

I just checked, and the Big Plant Sale at Green Springs is May 20. Not sure if anybody is planning to go to that. (Personally, I'm just as happy going to Black Creek Nursery in PA for good prices and interesting plants.)

Looks like we're celebrating the twins 5th (yikes) bday on 5/6, so that would be the only Saturday that I couldn't make it. Thank you for hosting Terri!!

RalphGamba, please do share the address of the one in Sykesville, as that is where I live and may want to go and check it out and I will report back to you guys about it. Thanks!

Terri, I also can't do May 6th, and thanks for hosting!

Any of those Saturdays will work for me. Thank you for hosting, Terri.

Calendar free! Looking forward to it.

Sheela, I think the one in Sykesville is done by a Mid-Atlantic Gardening group on FaceBook. See The thread "2023 Mid-Atlantic Plant Swap?" in Mid Atlantic Gardening forum

Any of the dates work for me.

Which Saturday I take off from other things in May is flexible, but I can probably take only one -- so any Saturday works for our swap, but I likely won't be able to make it to other events that month.

Ok, it looks like the 6th is out and the 13th has a conflict with another swap in the area that some may want to go to, so it is looking like the 20th. I'll wait for a few others to chime in before setting the 20th in stone.

Thought I would tag the members who usually come just to make sure they see this thread and can weigh in on date before I make it final. Please forgive me if I miss anyone!

@Blanche_F @Frenchy21 @ecnalg @greenthumb99 @Rebecca_W @RickM @robinbunch5 @sallyg @sulurph @tantefrancine

And @RickM can you make this thread a sticky? I will probably only use this one thread for everything related to the swap and just edit the very first post to fill in all the details.

Terri, thank you so much for undertaking this! Remember, if there are still some patches of dead stiltgrass or un-mulched areas (oh, horror), WE WON"T CARE. We do want to admire the new stonework and the boxwood area and the wonderful little garden signs in your defined spaces.

I want to put in a "plug" here for hosting... preparation is only as big a job as you make it. It can be a motivation for getting weeding etc. done that you want to do anyway -- but your garden and house do not have to be magazine-feature-ready! Pot luck makes things easy, too -- anything that you need and don't see on the list (napkins, extra chairs, a canopy in case of rain), you can ask for. We are an easy group. Our gatherings are about people and plants, and nobody is going to run a white glove across your windowsills.

My reason for not offering this spring is that we need to redo the deck before we can have people over, and it's not about aesthetics. There are actual holes in the decking where you can put a foot through if you don't watch your step. If anybody has a decking company they like, please send me a tree-mail.

Does anybody need 1020 trays? I ordered a set of colored ones earlier in the year (from Greenhouse Megastore) but need more, and I found that they sell black ones for half the price (duh!). They are called "mega heavy duty" 1020 trays and show photos of a tray holding 4 sacks of concrete or a grown man. The colored ones seem nearly as thick as my old permanest trays that have gradually succumbed to the elements (or to being stepped on!).

If you want those or anything else from them, LMK. Goods will be delivered to you at the Spring Plant Swap (or sooner if you can pick up from Frederick). I'm about at the free shipping point, so the trays are $3.60 each, and you can order whatever number you want. (They come in groups of 10, and if I end up with 14 trays, that's fine.)

If we actually manage to order 50 trays, the price per tray drops to $3. Given that the flimsy trays are up to around $2 locally (I think I saw $1.89 recently, maybe at Tractor Supply?), I think these are an excellent deal.

https://www.greenhousemegastor...

No conflict for David or me for the 20th. Thanks for asking.

aspenhill. I have invited Josephinem8gmailcom to join us at the Swap. She is from Hawaii and she has beautiful orchids, some of them 30 years old. She may share some at the swap. She had never used garden.org. I tried to explain to her that it is a big garden association. I hope she will come with her husband, who is very handy, is a good cook. I have known them for a long long time.

Tell her I'm looking forward to meeting her, Francine! I think we all are an awe of anybody who has success with orchids -- Lisa, Terri's SIL Bonnie, my neighbor Rhonda. I wish Orchidfancy had made the transition from DG with us.

BTW, an orchid that I bought MIL last Mother's Day is putting out some buds! Not due to my care at all... I did not cut off its bloom stalk, because it was still green and because I do not fuss with houseplants... lo and behold, a side shoot developed and got buds when I wasn't looking! Those phals from Aldi are TOUGH. Her Valentine's Day one was in full bloom (no unopened buds) when purchased and just last week dropped a dried-up blossom. One. The rest still look great. If they have them in time for the seed swap next year, I will pick some up for us!

I didn't really mean to start chatting about orchids. Did you notice how adroitly I brought the above paragraph back around (kicking & screaming) to swaps?

Jill, why don't write to her! Another person who is also an expert with phalaenopsis is Maria Dales that you met last year, hers bloomed all the time. I was pretty good too, a long time ago, but then the mice ate them all-Learned from Merryfield nursery store, and the Behnkes, where I used to go for the meetings of the Potomac Rose Society, and I bought also orchids there and went to their classes about orchids too.
Some of my favorite flowers: roses, orchids, sambac Jasmines, Cestrum nocturnum, Viburnums, tuberoses and scented geraniums.......before the mice are gone, I do not want to grow the tropical ones, because they eat them.

The swap I listed as Sykesville is in Burtonsville, on 15716 Allnut Lane. There is a Facebook group for it: MidAtlantic Garden Forum. The Facebook group is open for anyone to join. The time is 10 AM to 1 PM including a pot luck lunch. It is hosted by "Gardengramma". There are some prearranged swaps, but most plants are first come first served. The first time I went, I just showed up. There are more details on the Facebook page.

Several weeks ago, when we had the high winds, a tree came down into a neighbors house. (Everyone is ok.) When the tree guy came to start the clean up, my next door neighbor was asking about taking out a couple of scragglers. The, she mentioned that that huge oak between our 2 lots was semi-unclaimed because we don't know where the property line is. Well, he has this nifty app on his phone that showed where he was in relation to the line. The tree is mine.

I may get a quote on removing the lowest branch. If the tree does decide to fall (no signs of that happening anytime soon) removing that branch almost guarantees that the tree would fall away from the house instead of toward it.

Rick, I think I'm relieved to know the fate of that beautiful big tree is in your hands, despite potential maintenance costs.

Ralph, thanks for those details! I hope we'll see you at Terri's, too. Apart from the people, the food, and the plants -- her place is beautiful!